British Labour and the Royal Commission on Trade Unions, 1867–9

Abstract

The Royal Commission on British trade unions, 1867–9, was brought to life by two events, either of which alone might well have proved fatal to unionism. The decision of the court of Queen's Bench in Hornby v. Close had questioned the very legality of trade unions, had declared them to be against public policy, and had removed their funds from the protection of the law. In addition to this, the renewal of outrages and murder by the Saw-Grinders of Sheffield had produced a whirlwind of anti-unionism in public opinion. It was the Sheffield employers led by their bitterly anti-unionist M.P., J. A. Roebuck, who first demanded an investigation by the national government, and when the request, seconded though it was by the unionists—they had no alternative—was conceded by the cabinet the workers naturally felt that “Labour on Trial” was the keynote of the hour. Outrages and murder, an apparently class-conscious court of Queen's Bench, employers in full cry against unions and a press almost unanimous in denunciation of them—all created the background for a Royal Commission to which workmen could scarcely look forward with pleasure. The shock-wave these events produced in the labour movement at large can be seen in all directions.